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Angelica Maria Gandara
Eleven-year-old Angelica was last seen in her hometown of Temple, Texas between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. on July 14, 1985. She was walking home from her grandmother's house and has not been seen since. A witness saw Angelica inside of a 1977 Chevrolet pickup truck accompanied by an unidentified Caucasian male and female. The witness told the authorities that the truck's hood, front fender and bed were painted red and white. The doors were blue and white and the top of the truck was painted white. According to the witness, the vehicle was dirty, dented and in general disrepair. Angelica resided in the 800 block of north 6th Street in Temple at the time of her disappearance. A neighbor reported having seen her the day before her disappearance, pushing her niece in a stroller up the street between her grandmother's house & her own home. The neighbor stated someone driving a blue car pulled up alongside Angelica and the driver attempted to get her to accept a ride. Angelica kept walking and the car circled the block, slowed down alongside her again, then drove away. Angelica never said anything about the incident to her family. She disappeared the next day. A clark at a Shamrock convenience store in San Antonio, Texas reported seeing Angelica on several occasions in late July 1985, after she disappeared. The clerk said the girl who resembled Angelica would always get dropped off at the store by a man in a car and would go inside the store alone while the driver and car waited across the street. The girl was always very quiet, seemed to be tense and in a hurry when she made her purchases. After learning about Angelica's disappearance, the clerk tried to delay the girl the next time she came into the store by offering her a drink and then going to the phone to call police, but the girl's driver got out of the car, went inside, grabbed the girl and told the clerk not to say anything. The clerk was unable to describe the man and this account has not been confirmed. In 2007, authorities announced they considered David Elliot Penton a person of interest in Angelica's disappearance and in the disappearances and murders of several other young girls, including Amber Crum and Ara Johnson. A photograph of Penton is posted below this case summary. Penton is has been incarcerated in an Ohio prison since 1987. He also signed a plea agreement admitting to the murders of three girls in Texas. The Texas victims disappeared over a period of 18 months in the Dallas area, and ranged in age from 4 to 9 years old. Penton was also convicted of manslaughter in the child abuse death of his own infant son in 1984; he fled while free on bond pending the outcome of his appeal and remained at large until 1987 when he was charged with the murder of a friend's 9-year-old niece in Ohio. He was later convicted of this crime. Penton's cellmates went to investigators and claimed that he had implicated himself in the disappearances of Ara, Amber and Angelica, but he has not been charged in connection with any of these disappearances. Ramiro Rubi Ibarra is another possible suspect in Angelica's case. In 1997, he was convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl from Waco, Texas. Ibarra (an acquaintance of the victim's family) broke into her home and killed her. He was sentenced to death and is still awaiting execution, but authorities have been unable to link him to Angelica. Angelica is described as a Hispanic female of Mexican descent with black hair, brown eyes, a height of 4'10 and weighs 85 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black & white short-sleeved pullover shirt with the word "SASSOON" printed across the front, black shorts, white bobby socks and white sneakers. She has a mole on her nose. Category:Missing by Year